I do not own the Inheritance Cycle or any of the characters that were in the books.

Redefining Pain

Eragon opened his eyes and saw Aria across the dungeon from him. They had been brought to this castle and had been placed in the dungeon. Since then, he had had to watch as they tortured Arya for information about where the Eldunari and dragon eggs were. Arya had told them only one thing, "Go to Hell". Eragon was proud of her resilience but was certain that he couldn't last much longer from having to watch her be tortured.

Just then the door opened and in walked the Kull that had tortured Arya for three days non stop. It was the same Kull that had brought them here. He had brought a razor and a bucket of what looked like pee but smelled like Sulfur, saltwater, vinegar, and lemon juice all mixed together.

"Okay," the Kull said. "Since you won't spill your guts, maybe your friend will."

"Don't count on it," Eragon said glaring at him.

If his shackles hadn't been restricting his magic, he would have torn the Kull apart. The Kull grinned and bent down to be at eye level.

"Do you want to kill me?" the Kull asked. "If you just tell me, I'll give you a chance."

Eragon spat in his eye and the Kull wiped it away then grinned.

"Good," the Kull said. "I've always preferred the hard way."

The Kull picked up the razor and carefully cut a shallow gash in Eragon's arm. It hurt like heck but he couldn't possibly bleed from it. The Kull had tortured Arya by simple beating her. Eragon decided he would have been better off being beaten but was happy so long as Arya was temporarily safe. The Kull pulled a cup out of the bucket and poured the contents into Eragon's cut. The pain from it instantly multiplied by several hundred thousand times. He instinctively severed his connection with Saphira to spare her the pain. After the contents of the cup had stopped foaming in Eragon's wound, the Kull made several more cuts and poured more of the mixture on them. Eragon's head began to feel light and his screams sounded distant.

He could see that Arya was awake and was staring at him worried and was already close to breaking from the same thing Eragon had already endured for three days. He shook his head and she understood. The Kull made more cuts and Arya looked away as he poured more mixture on Eragon's cuts. Eragon screamed again but when the pain had subsided enough, he laughed and smiled up at the Kull.

"That tickles," Eragon said then spit at him again.

He missed but he had made his point. The Kull smiled and pulled out two flasks. The first he poured in, Eragon recognized as fluorosulfuric acid. The second was a black liquid that Eragon could have sworn he had seen before but couldn't place. Arya clearly recognized it based on the terrified expression on her face.

"Last chance," the Kull said. "Spill and I won't use this."

"How is that fluorosulfuric acid not diluting?" Eragon asked.

"Magic," the Kull said. "Fine. If you won't tell...if you tell me what I want to know girl, I'll spare him my masterpiece."

"Don't," Eragon said.

"They're..." Arya closed her eyes and tears began streaming freely down her cheeks. "They're up your ass and around the corner."

"Fine," the Kull said clearly happy that he could use the mixture. "Let's get this party started. Just so you know, I'm not stopping when you spill now."

With that said, he made a cut on Eragon's arm and poured a tiny bit of the mixture into it. Eragon's eyes widened until they looked like they would pop out. He opened his mouth to scream but the pure unrefined agony drowned his voice before he could make a sound. The acid hissed loudly and produced a sickly yellow foam. Eragon arched his back and finally managed to make a sound. His voice was barely more than a strangled whine. A moment later, blood began to run out of the corners of his mouth. He thrashed against his shackles but they wouldn't budge. Finally, the Kull placed his hand over Eragon's wound and it stopped hissing and foaming. Eragon slowly relaxed and hung limply from his shackles. Arya sobbed and the Kull lifted Eragon's face.

"Where are they?" the Kull asked.

Eragon answered by spitting blood into his face. The Kull wiped it away and drove his knife through Eragon's shoulder and into the wall behind it. Then he turned to Arya.

"Either you tell me or it's your turn," the Kull said.

Just then a blood curdling scream sounded through the entire castle and the Kull turned around in time for Eragon to drive the knife into his eye. He stumbled backward into the wall then out of the room. Eragon looked at his arm and saw that the black liquid was beginning to spread through his veins and arteries. It was leaving a familiar black mark. Eragon had seen it once before, on Arya when they first met. He groaned and looked down at his ruined hand. He had pulled it out of his shackle similar to what Arya had once done. Then he had found the strength to move it out of sheer force of will. He had used it to pull the knife out and stab the Kull but now it was completely useless.

Eragon was now standing on the ground with one hand still in the shackle. He began pulling that one out and once it was free he collapsed against the wall spasming in agony. The Skilna Bragh in his arm had decided to take that moment to start working. It was worse than anything he had felt yet but he still managed to force himself to stand and to move to Arya. He managed to use his left hand and broke the chains attached to her Shackles then collapsed again. Arya broke her cuffs off then used a spell to regenerate his hands as much as she could then forced him into a coma to slow the poison which had already spread to cover most of his upper arm. She threw him over her shoulder then carried him outside.

Just as she reached the surface, Saphira and Firnen landed and Arya climbed on Firnen. She ordered him to find the closest Fricai Andlat. Firnen took off and flew North East and Saphira followed. Firnen landed in Ellesmera and elves, seeing the spot on Eragon's arm, rushed forward and took him away to administer the cure. Arya began searching for Blodhgram so that he could heal Eragon's hands. She found him sparring with Vanir.

"Blodhgram!" Arya said. "I need your help!"

Blodhgram followed her to the hospital refusing his insistence to heal her wounds. When they arrived, he understood why she was so distressed. Eragon had woken up and was having a seizure again. Blodhgram sent him into a coma and Arya looked at his arm. The poison had been cured but all of the wounds had some mixture in them that had started affecting him again when the cure had mixed with them. The one wound with fluorosulfuric acid was foaming again and hissing louder than before. Eragon would be dead within minutes if the mixture wasn't removed.

"Step aside Arya," Blodhgram said.

She did as he said and he and the other spellcasters began removing the mixture then healing his wounds. When they reached his hands Blodhgram stared at them then took a deep breath and healed them alone. When he was finished, he woke Eragon up and Eragon groaned and sat up then turned green and Blodhgram handed him a bucket. Eragon threw up into it and when he finished he tried to thank Blodhgram only to throw up again.

"It's okay," Blodhgram said. "You don't need to thank me. It's my pleasure."

Eragon nodded and threw up again. After a few hours of this and not being able to sleep, Eragon finally gave up and mentally asked Blodhgram to get rid of his memories of his torture. Blodhgram told him that it wasn't possible but did manage to heal the mental scars they left. Eragon managed to stop puking and finally managed to leave the hospital.

"Are you going to be okay?" Arya asked.

"Not for a long time," Eragon said. "But I will be eventually."

Arya felt horrible but knew there was nothing she could have done. Blodhgram had healed her injuries before leaving but she still put a hand over where her arm had been broken. Eragon was right. It would take a very long time for him to recover. She knew first hand how bad the effects of Skilna Bragh were and she had only recovered because she had a higher pain threshold than most. But she would be there for him every step of the way no matter what.

THE END

Read and review. Someone said I should put Author's Notes in and, while I hate doing that, I can give you a general idea of how fast things have happened. There were three hours between Eragon waking up after reviving Arya and the riders attacking. From there, it took one hour before the Kull Rider arrived for Eragon and Arya. It took one day for him to get them to his castle, then he spent three days torturing Arya constantly. He let them have one day to rest, then tortured Eragon for about an hour. Then it took about an hour for Arya to get him healed.